One of the things I do not like about IT in my country is that Linux does not get the attention it deserves. People talk about it in a mythical way without ever having seen a Linux desktop environment.
Once I was out looking for a laptop and was in one of the biggest computer malls in Istanbul. I saw one computer, an Acer I think, on the shelf claiming that Linux was preinstalled. From prior research, I'd learned that Acer bundles Linpus Linux, a Taiwanese-based distribution. Thinking that I could install another distro, I went to the saleslady to ask about the technical specifications. She explained briefly about the CPU, RAM, and the hard disk capacity, and then immediately afterward she said, "You know that Linux is a text-based operating system?"
As a user of Linux for more than five years, I asked her, "Have you ever seen Linux boot up to the desktop manager?
"To be frank, no," she answered. "This is what we were told in the product training."
"Well," I said, "is there a demo laptop available?"
She answered, "Yes," and showed me the notebook.
I booted it and it prompted for a login. I asked if she knew the username and password (after trying acer/acer, root/root, user/user, the basic defaults). She made a couple of telephone calls and then told me the username and password.
I logged in and proudly typed "startx" to show her that what she learned was deeply wrong. What I saw on the screen left me speechless. "No X-Server installed." In the middle of the shop, I was frozen. How could that be? I told them that Acer did not ship the system with complete installation, but it did not change the fact that there was no graphical desktop. I left.
Still searching for the notebook, I found a different Acer model that suited my needs and my budget, and I went ahead with the purchase. I basically thought that I would go on with a new distro installation. I upgraded the RAM in the shop and headed back home. I booted the system and it prompted "login: " I used the basic combination and after logging in I typed "startx". No X-Server installed. "OK," I said and fully installed my distro and tried to go online via my wireless router. Not a chance. The Atheros chipset was not working. I checked the CDs bundled with the notebook and found no drivers. Forums did not have solutions to get my wireless card working. I took the notebook to Acer and demanded replacement for the wireless adapter. I told them the whole story and said, "You are shipping this notebook with Linux without hardware support."
Many thanks are due to Acer tech support, which is Infronic in Kucukbakkalkoy, Istanbul. They replaced the Atheros cards with an Intel 3945 at no additional cost. I haven't had a single problem with Linux on my notebook since.
Now let's think about this. What did the saleslady learn about Linux? What did she tell the prospective buyers like me? What did people face after they bought the either notebook with Linux preinstalled?
The myth that Linux is a text-based operating system is an issue worth discussing. The graphical system, the application windows and menus in the display, are all working on top of the underlying operating system. In other words, doing something graphically, liike dragging a folder from one folder to another with the mouse is asking the system to perform exactly the same task that typing
mv /home/user/my_folder/myfile /home/user/my_another_folder/myfile
into a terminal is, as far as the operating system is concerned. There are two strong things to note here: